ALONG the TOWPATH a Quarterly Publication of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Association
ALONG THE TOWPATH A quarterly publication of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Association Concerned with the conservation of the natural and historical environment of the C&O Canal and the Potomac River Basin. VOLUME XLIII June 2011 Number 2 The C&O Canal in the Civil War The Sesquicentennial Year 1861 - 2011 With our nation commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil Ferry. The owner of the boats, Charles Wenner, appealed War, it is appropriate that we look back at some of the varying ways to the sheriff of Frederick County, Maryland, for help. The in which the C&O Canal was impacted by the conflict. Because of its sheriff was powerless to intervene, however, and referred location along a portion of Maryland‟s southern border with Vir- the matter to Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks. In another ginia—the boundary between the North and South—the canal would instance, the Confederates seized a boatload of salt. Hicks soon be an object of contention between the opposing sides. This issue would soon receive a petition from a group of citizens from will present three different aspects of the conflict. Montgomery County, Maryland, asking for protection of their grain on the canal.1 Leading off is a contribution from Tim Snyder, author of the forth- coming book, "Trembling in The Balance: The Chesapeake and Ohio Since interference with canal navigation was only one Canal during the Civil War," soon to be published by Blue Mustang of a number of border violations committed by the Virginia Press. Grant Reynolds presents a more human side of the war, and troops from Harpers Ferry, Governor Hicks referred the Mike Dwyer, our "man in Montgomery," relates a tale of behind-the- matters to the Maryland General Assembly.
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